New Year, old traditions

It has arrived, 2021. Out with the old and in with the new. There seems to always be a great urgency to change with the new year, to be better than you were last year and that is an admiral goal but it’s also important to hold on to familiar traditions that make going into the new year or a new decade palatable. It’s also great to know that with a new year comes old traditions in the kitchen. Most cultures have a traditional meal that is eaten on Jan 1st to bring, luck, fortune, and well-being into the new year. I, being from the American south have a tradition to eat black eye peas for luck and greens for prosperity throughout the new year. I haven’t always followed traditions through my adult life, but I have made it a point in recent years to make sure I do. My greens of choice this year is collards with turnip roots. And since I am a fairly new vegetarian the challenge was to cook this meal without meat.

You see in the south even vegetables are made with meat, with pork to be exact to add flavor. Some part of the pig whether it is bacon or ham hocks will be added to give greens that extra zest. My zest this year will come strictly from my spice cabinet. Don’t get me wrong pork does add a lot of flavor, but some seasoning salt and garlic powder goes a long way and if you add a dash of liquid smoke it will give the allure of smoked meat which adds just the extra ingredient needed to make collard greens tasty. Black eyes peas are pretty easy to zest up whether dried, frozen, or canned (I prefer dried). The ingredients of salt, pepper, onions, garlic powder, and maybe some pepper flake or hot peppers for some real spice. Serve both with rice for a traditional southern vegetarian New Year’s Day lunch.

Remembering family traditions is the greatest way to connect your future with your past. A simple way of bridging the gap is with the food of your grandparents and their parents before them. Not all cultures have been blessed with the knowledge of their ancestral traditions but for the ones that still exist, or ones that are created, to continue they must carry on. Traditions remind us of our uniqueness and our similarities as people. We may not eat the same things for the same reasons, but we all have traditions that involve food. Food bonds us all across cultures. I had the good fortune to join a friend’s family for a New Year’s dinner tonight where Thai noodle soup is the traditional meal for long life. Delicious, spicy, and filling, I think I’ve eaten enough today to cover all my fortunes for the new year.